[비즈한국] While the annual earnings of major domestic conglomerates showed overall improvement last year, a significant portion of the actual growth was concentrated in just two companies: Samsung Electronics005930 and SK Hynix000660. The recovery of the semiconductor market and increased demand for AI memory boosted overall figures, but the profit growth for the remaining companies was relatively limited.
According to CEO Score on the 25th, the 2025 operating profit for 254 listed companies among the top 500 domestic firms by revenue, which have submitted their annual reports, reached 228.2719 trillion won, an increase of 43.9666 trillion won (23.9%) from the previous year's 184.3053 trillion won. During the same period, revenue increased by 7.9% to 2,718.8792 trillion won, and net profit grew by 32.4% to 182.1439 trillion won.
However, semiconductors were at the center of the operating profit growth. The combined operating profit of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics last year was 90.8074 trillion won, an increase of 34.6141 trillion won (61.6%) from the previous year's 56.1933 trillion won. This accounts for 78.7% of the total operating profit growth of the surveyed companies. Conversely, the operating profit of the remaining 252 companies, excluding these two, only increased by 9.3525 trillion won (7.3%), from 128.1121 trillion won to 137.4646 trillion won.
By company, SK Hynix ranked first last year with an operating profit of 47.2063 trillion won, an increase of 23.7390 trillion won (101.2%) from the previous year. Samsung Electronics followed with 43.6011 trillion won, while Korea Electric Power Corporation015760 (13.4906 trillion won), Hyundai Motor Company005380 (11.4679 trillion won), and Kia000270 (9.0781 trillion won) followed in that order. In terms of operating profit growth, SK Hynix also ranked first, followed by Samsung Electronics and Korea Electric Power Corporation.
On the other hand, some sectors showed a different trend from semiconductors. Kia saw the largest decline in operating profit, falling by 3.5890 trillion won (28.3%) compared to the previous year, while Hyundai Motor Company also decreased by 2.7717 trillion won (19.5%). Samsung SDI swung to a deficit, with a decrease of 2.0857 trillion won. By industry, sectors such as pharmaceuticals (66.2%), IT and electrical/electronics (54.4%), shipbuilding/machinery/equipment (48.5%), and public enterprises (35.3%) saw increases, while transportation (-43.7%), automotive/parts (-16.8%), and trading (-10.1%) declined.
This data shows that the improvement in conglomerate earnings was not spread evenly across all sectors, but rather driven significantly by the recovery of the semiconductor industry. While a double-digit growth rate appeared for listed conglomerates as a whole, the rate remained in the single digits when the two semiconductor giants were excluded. This indicates that one must look at semiconductor and non-semiconductor sectors separately when interpreting the earnings trends of major companies last year.